Nick Barton to be awarded with Darwin-Wallace Medal

The first professor has taken up his work at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria: Nick Barton, one of the leading evolutionary biologists in the world and a Fellow of the Royal Society in London, has moved to Klosterneuburg from the University of Edinburgh, where he held a Chair in Evolutionary Genetics. Professor Haim Harari, the chairman of the Executive Committee of IST Austria, remarked: "Nick is a world leader in evolutionary population genetics. We are very proud that he has chosen IST Austria as his future home for this exciting and flourishing field of science." President-elect Thomas Henzinger added: "Nick's work contributes to the development of Darwin's 150-year old insights into a rigorous mathematical theory with quantifiable predictions and a deeper understanding of evolution's mechanisms. I am very glad that he decided to join us in establishing a world-class research institute.” On February 13, 2009 Barton received the Darwin-Wallace Medal by the Linnean Society. The medal is considered to be the most prestigious award in the field of evolutionary biology. Until now, it has been awarded only every 50 years, beginning in 1908, to commemorate the joint presentation by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace of their two famous papers on the evolution of species in 1858.